With their first album for three years and their tenth in all, critics and fans seem to have worked themselves up into a right old lather about the Pet Shop Boys‘ latest release Yes. And while Pet Shop Boys + pop producers du jour Xenomania is a good basis to start from, RealMusic Blog reckons everyone should calm down a bit and take a deep breath. There, feel better? Neil and Chris are certainly flavour of the month, having been honoured at this year’s Brits and plastered over every magazine and Sunday supplement going, but have they still got that certain stardust that sees most of their singles turn into hits? The short answer, like the album title suggests, is yes…
Of course, unlike all the young whippersnappers jumping on the 80s synth bandwagon right now, you can’t accuse the Neil and Chris of doing the same because, well, they’re the drivers. The sound they produce is all strident synths, all manner of electro-frippery melded with cracklingly understated lyrics - and this album is no exception. Expect Tennant to sound supremely uninterested yet engaged, Lowe to tap his keyboard with ennui and the whole thing to sound like they just dreamt it up last night and aren’t they clever? So it goes.
So what works? Well, most of it to be honest. We pressed play with one eyebrow raised, but after careful listening have to confirm that this is their best album for years. Years. It all kicks off with cracking first single Love Etc, a chanty ode to now with a backbeat that sounds like an Atari game circa 1984. Tennant’s vocals sound almost silky on track two, All Over The World, which we reckon would win Eurovision hands down - Neil in ten-inch heels, flags aloft as the chorus rings out - you can see it can’t you?
Throughout, the glossy electro-pop just keeps on coming. Vulnerable is touching, King Of Rome slows things down to a thoughtful canter and The Way It Used To Be is an urgent love missive that’s pure PSB, replete with dodgy rhyming couplets. Meanwhile, sumptuous tracks More Than A Dream, Pandemonium and All Over The World ooze pop wisdom and electro-smarts by the dozen. In particular, Pandemonium has the classic first line: “Is this a riot or are you just pleased to see me?” The only dampener is the finale Legacy, a stop-start effort that never truly gets going.
Overall though, this album is uplifting. Listening to it with all its electro loveliness, gorgeous melodies, orchestral injections and swooping choruses is life-affirming madness. We came wondering what all the fuss was about, so now we know. We still think Erasure deserve some credit for their part in the electro-revolution mind.
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Pet Shop Boys’ Yes is out now.
(Clare Lydon)
